The 36-month project is a collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and will advance a novel therapeutic for triple-negative breast cancer to the point of pre-IND meeting with the FDA

EnduRx Pharmaceuticals, advancing a drug delivery system intended to improve outcomes for patients with hard-to-treat solid tumors, has been awarded $1.4 million dollar Department of Defense grant. The 36-month project is a collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and will advance a novel therapeutic for triple-negative breast cancer to the point of pre-IND meeting with the FDA. Total project grant award is $1.75 million dollars.

“With triple-negative breast cancer, so-called because it lacks the receptors that enable the use of treatments employed for other forms of breast cancer, only about 30% of patients at best respond to standard-of-care treatment.” said Stephan Morris, MD, EnduRx Principal Investigator. “There are currently few approved drugs available specifically for the treatment of this fast growing and poor-outcome type of breast cancer. Untreated, the cancer is likely to metastasize to the brain and parts of the body, and the five-year survival rate is then only a little over 10%, so there is an urgent need for an effective therapy,” Morris said. “This form of breast cancer is diagnosed in about 10-20% of breast cancer patients, with an even higher proportion occurring in African-American women. We are pleased to have this opportunity to work with Dr. Naoto Ueno’s breast cancer group at MD Anderson, whose access to patient-derived xenograft models should provide a high level of confidence that the EnduRx Pharmaceuticals therapeutic candidate will translate well into human subjects with triple-negative breast cancer.”

About EnduRx Pharmaceuticals

EnduRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Tucson firm, is part of OBDURO Biotechnologies, a San-Diego company formed in 2019, to improve delivery of drugs selectively to the site of disease and not elsewhere in the body. In 2020 OBDURO plans a funding round and will use the proceeds to further leverage the grant-sponsored activities and generate persuasive data aimed at securing pharma partnerships. EnduRx previously received a $1.75 million SBIR grant to develop a prototype of the drug delivery system.

“Earlier work showed tumor-volume reductions of over 90% in mouse models, with some cures. The DoD grant will allow EnduRx to complete pharmacokinetic and toxicology analyses as well as additional anti-cancer efficacy studies, data which are required before clinical trials can be initiated.” said David Loynd, Chief Executive Officer of OBDURO and EnduRx.

About the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs:

CDMRP was established in 1992 when Congress first appropriated funds targeted specifically for breast cancer research. Since that time, additional research programs and topics have been added by Congress, and CDMRP has evolved into a global funding organization that fosters novel approaches to biomedical research in response to the expressed needs of its stakeholders — the American public, the military, and Congress. For more information about CDMRP go to https://cdmrp.army.mil/. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.